Page 1 `" A multi-perspective analysis of videographic data on the

'"
...
A multi-perspective analysis of videographic data on the
performance of spirit possession in Dominican Vodou
Yvonne
SCHAFFLER
& Bernd
BRABEC DE MORI
Abstracts
The article is concerned w ith spirit possession during public Vodou celebrations in the
Southwest of the Dom inican Republic , By analysing videograph ic material archived at the
Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, features of Dom inican Vodou are
described from three int erlocking perspectives, w ith particula r emphasis on the enact ment
of the divine. These perspectives include the view of the researcher, a medical anthropologist , as well as the interpretations of a local specialist in the performance of the genre,
and the perceptions and associations of a musicologist working at the Phonogrammarchiv
preparing the collection for deposit and eventual access by arch ive patrons. Based on th is
multiperspectivity, the article prov ides a detailed description of spirit possession, including a
wider perspective by refe rring to theo retical issues from different cultural areas and research
disciplines, and it finally explores what constitutes a successful possession performance,
Der Beitrag befasst sich mit Besessenheit im Vodou der Dom in ikanischen Republik unter
besonderer BerQcksichtigung iiffentlicher Zerernonien , Mittels Analyse videographische r
Daten, die im Phonogrammarchiv der bsterreichischen Akadem ie der Wissenschaften archiviert slnd, werden die Charakteristika des Dom inikanischen Vodou aus dre i einander erganzenden Perspektiven herausgearbeitet, wobei der Fokus auf performativen Aspekten liegt.
Enthalten sind die Sichtweisen de r Forscherin, einer Med izinanthropologin, des Weiteren
die Interpretationen eines lokalen Praktizierenden von Vodou sowie die Assoziationen eines
Mus ikologen , der am Phonogrammarchiv das Material fOr Archivierungs- und Ansichtszwe cke aufbereitet hat, Ausgehend von dieser Multiperspektivltat beschre ibt der Beitrag das
Phanornen Besessenheit detaill iert und mit Blick auf andere kulturelle Kontexte und theore-
tische Konzepte versch iedener Disziplinen. Er w idmet sich zudem der Frage, was zur erfolgreichen Performance von Besessenheit letztendl ich notwendig ist.
Keywords
Spirit Possession, Dom inican Republic, Performance, Multiperspectivity
Besessenheit, Dom in ikanische Republ ik, Performance, Multiperspektivitat
The present article analyses videographic material on rituals of possession in the Dominican Republic. The collected material was created for methodological purposes within the context of a larger project on the "Modes
and Function of Spirit Possession",funded by the Austrian Science Fund, and
c
,.ou r ,.
TSpe ctlV
ih
Wo
cnamer
D
mu tmmet: ~
~
lit!
archived at the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.'
The aim of this paper is to point out the most salient features of Dominican
Vodou during public celeb rations in terms of its structure and phenomenology/ with particular emphasis on the practice of spirit possession, byengaging three complementary perspectives from different backgrounds. A secondary goal is to describe some characteristics of the material it self and the
circumstances under which it was produced as background information for
researchers who intend to use the material for future research .
After some introductory remarks about the ethnographic background
we will (i) present an analysis from the point of view of the researcher and
collector of the video material, a medical anthropologist. First, she outlines
the underlying research and discusses some methodological aspects. She
will then present a typology of possession behaviou r and int eracti on during public Vodou celebrations based on the paradigm of altered states of
consciousness. Subsequently, we will (ii) depict a local view by giving space
to the interpretation of Jose/ a long-term practitioner of Dom inican Vodou.
While he watched and reflected on the collected material during weekly
sessions together with the researcher, Jose was asked to explain the cosmological meaning of what could be seen during the recorded rituals. In addition/ he commented on local concepts of spiritual force, knowledge, morale
and authenticity that he interpreted from watching specific situations of
possession behaviour, " Finally (iii), a musicologist who arch ived the material and created a content log will provide his interpretations. He has been
wo rking in a med ical anthropological context himsel f, conducting fieldwork
on healing and sorcery songs in the Western reaches of the Amazon lowlands . In addition, he already knew the researcher from pr ior academic collaborations/ and had worked at the archive with her audio recordings from
prior field trips to the Dominican Republic (2003-2006). His view is based on
the intention of grasping what is going on in the recordings in very general
terms, in order to make the mate rial accessible for the arch ive's clientele.
1
Yvonne Schaffler would like to tha nk t he Austrian Science Fund (FWF; project T525-G17) for fund ing
her research since 2011. Both aut hors also tha nk t he Phonogramma rchiv fo r archiving our video and
audio recordings since 2001, for providing recording equipment and t echni cal advice, and for inviting us to cont ribut e to the current issue of t he Phonogrammarchiv's Yearbook International Forum
an Audio-Visual Research.
2
Data prot ectio n in accordance w it h th e Helsinki declaration and t he responsible ethical committ ee
in Vienna does not allow revealing Jose's real name. Otherwise we would have considered him being
th e th ird autho r of th e present paper.
3
Any sort of comments Jose made were collected and wri tte n dow n by t he researcher.
102
20 15 Int ern at io nal Fo ru m on Aud io-Visua l Research - Jahrbuch 6
Ethnographic background
Vodou is an African diaspora tradition composed of elements from African religions, Catholicism, and European Spiritism . It is practised in both
countries located on the isle of Hispaniola: the Dominican Republic, prevlously colonised mostly by Spain, and the adjacent nation of Haiti, formerly
a French colony (Deive 1996 [1975]). Due to knowledge exchange between
Vodou practitioners from both countries, the Dominican Vodou tradition is
influenced from Haiti, but the practitioners consider their religion as a different path, referring to it as Las 21 Divisiones. Regarding the difference
between the two traditions, Las 21 Divisiones (or Dominican Vodou) is not
as popular in the Dominican Republic as Vodou is in Haiti, and it does not
have as rigid a structure. There are only few centres (altars) openly accessible, and practitioners conduct ceremonies and manifest the spirits (misterios) in rather flexible ways (Davis 1987).
Spirit possession
Spirit possession plays an important role in Vodou, as it does in many
other world religions (Boddy 1994; Bourguignon 1973). Once a spirit
descends upon a practitioner, the practitioner's body is believed to be used
by the entity as a means of expression, resulting in a transient alteration in
identity whereby the individual's normal identity is temporarily replaced by
the spirit's. The spirits are believed to be able to give prophecies of upcoming
events or situations pertaining to the possessed, who is also called "Horse
ofthe spirit" (caballo de misterio). According to local tradition, practitioners
have no recollection of what has happened during an episode of possession, and in fact, when the possessingspirit leaves the body, the Horse feels
exhausted and wonders what has occurred during her absence. Although
possession can be a tiring experience, vodouists see it as an innate ability
and as a sign of election.
The concept of "spiritual force" (fuerza espiritual) is central to the local
understanding of spirit possession. Spiritual force is what connects the
spiritual realm w ith human ity and what runs through places, objects and
humans asthey become bases for the spirits. It is sometimes described as a
current of energy, as something that, as one Horse put it, feels as if it "enters
you through the feet, then it takes you by the stomach, then it rises to your
head; it makes you feel giddy and then you have fallen, you have lost your
mind". Spiritual force is associated with bodily sensations like shivers, goose
pimples or sensations in the stomach area, which can either mark the onset
of possession or indicate a state of "being touched by the spirits". The latter
is imagined as a state of closeness to the spirits, also referred to as state of
"clear sight" (vista clara), during which an individual may receive important
information otherwise not available to humans.
Multi-perspective analy sis / Yvonne Schaffler & Bernd Brabe c de Mori
103
Vodouist celebrations
Experienced Horses (caballos) that own an altar and organise Vodou rituals are locally referred to as Servants (servidores). They may invoke spirit
possession in both public and more private situations. Public celebrations
(fiestas de misterios, man! or velaciones) serve to honour the spirits and
involve drumming and singing. They are either calendric celebrations of a
servidor's principle spirit(s) (misterio de cabeza), usually associated with the
date of the Saint's death and ascension into heaven, or based upon completion of a personal promesa ("promise") to a Saint who has responded to
one's petitions for assistance. Typically, after the ceremony is opened with
prayers, vodouists call upon the spirits by speaking more prayers, pouring
libations, spraying perfumes and starting to dance when the drummers fall
into a stirring rhythm. As the drumbeat intensifies, so do the movements
of the dancers, who lose themselves to the rhythm and the heavy aroma of
incense and perfume. To ensure that a fiesta involves several events of possession that make it "hot", the organiser commonly invites fellow Servants
who are well known for their capacity to manifest spirits. Those Servants,
who at the same time are spiritual leaders (trancos, Le. "trunks"), bring
their novices (ramas, literally: "branches"), to whom they provide spiritual
mentoring. Ritual assistants (plazas) help to manifest the spirits by evoking
them with ritual instruments, prayers and offerings. Among the guests of a
fiesta are furthermore many of the organiser's clients, who are devoted to
the celebrated spirits, as well as neighbours and onlookers whose relation
to the spirits is not as tight. Although these bystanders usually do not intend
to manifest the spirits, it is still possible that the spirits "ride" them spontaneously. A celebration is remembered as a successful one if-the later the
hour, the higher spirited the atmosphere-many events of possession took
place simultaneously. Particularly fiestas also serve advertising purposes.
The owner, who is mostly also the organiser of a fiesta, puts her close relationship to the spirits on public display, while at the same time, her devotees and potential new clients enjoy the opportunity to contact the spirits
and participate in an entertaining spectacle. Other types of ceremonies
serve the purpose of mourning the dead (rezo), penitence or cult induction
{bautismoi" To sessions with the purpose of resolving private problems,
only Servants and novices are invited, and the spirits are invoked "to work
with" rather than to dance and celebrate; consequently, their actions are
directed to tackle their devotee's concerns in a straightforward way.
4
For a mo re detailed distin cti on and description of events, see Piper (2012 : 197-218).
104
2015 International Forum on Audio-Visual Research - Jahrbuch 6
From the perspective of the researcher
Methodology and the oretical framework
Verifiable observation provides a solid foundation for analytic knowledge
of the world, allowing for detailed description, observation of simultaneous
activities and for overcoming the problem of limited attention spans. Video
recordings may draw attention to processes that do not catch one's eye at
first sight, that is, during participation in the event to be studied. Besides,
videography allows for repeated observation of the recorded data, which
facilitates a micro-analytic approach to action sequences (Knoblauch 2000:
169). Theories of knowledge and action are grounded in empirical evidence,
and generalisations are built from recordings of particular, naturally occurring activities (Jordan & Henderson 1995).
In our current project, videography was conducted in conjunction with
ethnographic fieldwork. The footage with a duration of more than 31 hours
was collected during three fieldwork episodes in mostly urban environments in the southwest of the Dominican Republic between 2009 and 2012,
lasting about ten months. Altogether, 113 occurrences of spirit possession
were recorded, with 59 of them completely filmed from onset to end.
Although this article focuses on spirit possession during public celebrations,
it should be noted that also other types of events were recorded, such as
pilgrimages, initiation rites and private ceremonies . Especially at an earlier
stage of research, I videotaped any kind of ritual action available with the
aim of becoming more acquainted with Vodou in general. Later, my interest focused on the recording of interactions between possessed persons
and other ritual participants at the expense of recording entire ceremonies.
With further narrowing my research interest, I started to specialise in early
possession, that is, in possession by inexperienced individuals, segmenting
these phenomena into early possession that does and does not cause suffering (see e.g. Schaffler 2012, 2013). In order to make this distinction, I
also relied on biographical interviews. When analysing these interviews, I
chose a number of individuals for case studies," and henceforth focused on
them more than on others. As far as video analysis is concerned, the analytic parameters of the selected interactions are directed towards the focus
of attention, facial mimics and lines of sight, body postures and distances
between the actors. Furthermore, their positioning in space as well asgroup
formation and the changes a group undergoes in the course of interaction
turned out to be of central concern.
5
These biographical histories will be presented and analysed in forthcoming work by Schaffler.
Multi-perspective analysis / Yvonne Schaff ler & Bernd Brabe c de Mori
105
In literature, possession is often described as a state of altered consciousness or trance (dissociation ; see Bourguignon 1973, 1976; Klass 2003;
Rouget 1985) . Possession trance refers to a temporary alteration of consciousness characterised by behavioural changes and the replacement of
a customary sense of personal identity by that of a spirit (Cardefia et al.
2009). In the following, I will sketch some of my observations on possession
behaviour, drawn from footage of public celebrations.
Factors that shape possession behaviour are time, experience, spirit
personality and extensive demands arising from the ritual setting, but also
variations of trance depth on a continuum between only mild trance on the
one hand, and deep dissociation on the other. I will here extend what has
already been observed by Bourguignon (1976: 40).
Factors shaping possession trance behavio ur
Timing
Possession bearings, in general, change notably between the possession's outset and its later episodes, when various symbolic proceedings are
performed. Before the spir it 's arrival, the gaze of the person about to be
possessed turns inwards. Initial convuls ions signal an approaching spirit
and are sometimes accompanied by moaning. While the transition from an
ordinary state to possession trance involves an introspective attitude with
litt le awareness of the surroundings and sometimes convulsive behaviour,
in the later course of a possession, in accordance with mythology, the spirit
fully manifests in the head of the possessed person (fig . 1).6 This stage is
characterised by extraverted and more organised behaviour, as well as by
increased perception of the environment. During this second stage, the possessed person performs symbolic actions such as the salutation of the altar,
the blessing of the doorsill, as well as prayer, song, dance, gesture, and emotions specific to the embod ied spirit. During a third stage, she interacts with
other ritual participants, performing ritual salutations and raising the ritual
jar offered to her. Furthermore, she may express empathic care towards
others through laying on hands, or spiritual counsell ing (see fig . 2). However, interaction with other ritual participants may also involve verbal critique or, very rarely, even cases of physical attacks. This interactional stage
is followed by another stage of symbolic action, involving gestures of farewell, and bringing about the end of the possession. Episodes of possession
6
In Brasilian Candomb le, t he pro cess of t ransiti on is refer red to as irrodiocii o, and it is described wi t h
simi lar feat ures (Frigerio 1989 ; Halloy 2012 a, 2012b).
106
2015 International Forum on Audio-Visual Research - Jahrbu ch 6
involving all stages (transition-symbolic action-interaction-symbolic
action) can only be observed among fully initiated long-term practitioners.
Fig. 1: Skilful manifestation of the spirit Santa Marta la Dominadora or Lubana
during a public celebration. Photograph by lorge Vicioso.
Mvthological personalitv
Much of the possessed person's behaviour depends on which mythological personality is imagined to enter her body. Hereby, the category (division)
the possessing spirit adheres to defines if the possessed will either progress
through the stages described above or will not show much ritualised behaviour at all. The latter case sometimes occurs with so-called " Indian" spirits that tend to resist cooperation wi th other ritual participants for their
assumed savageness and " lack of culture".' Furthermore, spirits of the petro
group may appear angry, hot and frenzied, and likewise resist cooperation,
at least as long as they are not appeased with offerings and promises. Generally, female spirits are expressed gently and their presence is more subtle and easier in movements . Male spirits tend to be enacted in a more
energetic way, they appear stronger and even aggressive in nature; their
presence is more visible in the actions of the possessed. There are spirits
that burst into tears as they manifest (La Virgen Dolorosa or Metresilf]," and
7
For a mor e det ailed descri ption of the concept of t he " Indian Spiri t " see Schaffler (in print) .
8
La Virgen Dolorosa and Me tr esilf refer to t he same spiri t ual being by two differen t names, a Catholic
and a misterio name, both closely related t hrough religio us syncretism (Piper 20 12 : 123-13 1;
Schaff ler 2009: 49-68) . Therefore, in t he following most spirits are mentioned with the ir two names.
Multi-perspective analysis / Yvonne Schaffl er & Bernd Brabec de Mori
107
others that appear flirty (Santa Ana or Anafsa) or are up to shenanigans and
bad behaviour (San Expedito or Guede Limbo). Some spirits appear as small
children who desire sweets and toys and cry out loud if their wish is denied
(Santo Nifio Jesus de Atocha or Candelito).
Fig. 2: The spirit Guede Luis (right) turning to a visitor. Photograph by Yvonne
Schaffler.
(In )experience
The quality of possession strongly depends on the level of experience of
the possessed person. The possession behaviour of an inexperienced person lacks organisation and is thus referred to as wild possession (caballo
lobo, literally " wolf-horse" )." Symbolic action is, if at all, only hinted at, and
empathic care is rather needed by the possessed one than provided to others. An inexperienced Spirit Horse tends to lack control, from not tim ing her
possession right, to entering possession for only a short period (see fig. 3).
She may fall to the ground in what appear to be convulsions, sometimes
violently flailing about. The ritual assistants will assist her in regaining her
footing.
9
I ref erred to eobollo lobo for example in Schaffier (2012 , 2013 ).
10 8
20 15 Int ernat ional Foru m on Audio -v isual Research - Jahrbuch 6
Fig. 3: Novice to Vodou during "wild possession": Photograph by Iorqe Vicioso.
There is a tendency that inexperienced possession trancers dissociate
during early stages of a fiesta, when still few participants are present and
none of those present is drunk yet. This enables them to receive maximum
support from ritual assistants. Besides, it appears that also lay participants
most of the time watch each other carefully in order to minim ise the risk of
injury during trance episodes . If indications appear that a person is about to
fall int o possibly violent possession trance, bystanders stretch out their arm,
for example, in order to protect the trancer's head from hitting the wall.
Furthermore, violent trancers are often surrounded by a wall of people who
thus prevent them from fal ling or hurting themselves othe rwise. Those who
experience negative emotions while being ridden by the spirits are soothed
with tender gestures.
Optim al experience
Fully initiated and experienced individuals often dispose of what I shall
call skilfulness in possession. Their performance tends to coincide with an
air of energy, and counts on a high degree of support from ritual assistants,
drummers and the larger surrounding group. When a possessed person is
fully immersed in her spirit role, her performance creates focus. The drummers shift the ir attention towards her and support her action by performing the corresponding songs and rhythms . Moreover, members of the surrounding group tend to focus their attention on a person whose movements
are swift and charged w ith religious meaning, with their parallel awareness
fostering the experience of group cohesion. When the Horse attains the
Multi-perspective analysis / Yvonne Schaff ler & Bernd Brabec de M ori
109
centre of attention and feels positively encouraged by all the means the ritual setting can offer her, she may give in to what in psychology is described
as flow." During th is kind of experience , t he trance r "automati cally" (nonconsciously) and consistent ly performs previously observed behaviour,
which to her feels like being moved by an external force .
Excessive demand
Another type of possessionattracted my attention for its lengthy duration
and it s varying intensity. What I henceforth call "cent repiece possession"
tends to occur when the room is already crowded with guests and devotees,
a strategically favourab le point in time to receive a maximum of attention.
Centr epiece possession refers to possession performed by the organiser of
a public celebration herself, as she successively manifests those spirits honoured on this very occasion. This type of possession includes salutations of
a large number of people, the distribution of food, and possibly charging
ritual objects with spiritual force . When the organiser performs centrepiece
possession, her attention often keeps shifting between a focus on her spirit
role and on the (re)actions of the audience. Such a performance -since
spirit manifest ati ons often blend-can last up to hours, perhaps starting
with features of skilful possession, but notably subsiding in int ensit y of concent ratio n over ti me. When the organiser of a fiesta, fo r examp le, atte mpts
to keep the room 's decoration from being damaged, when she briefs her
assistants, or in case she simply has become tired due to the rit ual's excessive demand, her former state of altered consciousness may temporarily
pass int o ord inary state consciousness, her behaviour ind istinguishable
from that of everyday.
This phenomenon may lead even to ritual failure , as it happened during a series of annual celebrations, which I could repeatedly videotape,
dedicated to San Santiago (the celebrated entity as Catholic Sa int) or Ogun
Baleny6 (his African-roo t ed equiva lent) : The organiser felt committed to
celebrate every year in hono ur of t his Saint because of his personal religious
ob ligation (promesa) he had with the Saint, and he went on t o do so when
his mother died . Despite the great fame these celebrations had obtained
while the organiser's mother was stil l alive, after her death he was unable
to manage both his obligations as a host and the implicit performative
requ irements. His increasingly poor performance translated int o decreasing
10 Flow is a variet y of tranc e t hat is connecte d to heightened quality of performance, and that requires
a clear set of goals and progress, clear and immediate feedback, and confidence in the perf ormer's
abili ty (Csikszentmihalyi 1990). Mo re features characteristic for skilful possession are described in
Schaffler (2015, in print).
110
2015 International Forum on Audio-Visual Research - Jahrbuch 6
financial support by the altar's devotees. Consequently, the altar could no
longer be decorated in the most distinguished way, and less food and drinks
could be offered to visitors and spirits respectively. During the annual feast,
guests expressed their dissatisfaction by not paying much attention to the
host's centrepiece possession, and by making fun of his breaks of character,
his shifting eyes, wooden movements, and nervous gesticulation . His performative defeat peaked as the band of musicians mocked him by starting
to play in moments when the manifesting spirit wanted to speak. Contrarily,
they refused to play when the spirit wanted to dance, while many guests
loudly expressed their doubts about the authenticity of the possession.
When I went to fi lm the event for the last time, the number of guests had
contracted from formerly hundreds to only a few.
A local response to the material
The following section is dedicated to the perspective of Jose, a longterm practitioner. Born into a family of rural farmers in a remote area in the
Dominican Republic's southwest, his spiritual career began early when he
started reading cards. When he was eighteen years old, his lengthy initiation process into Vodou ended with a formal closing ceremony in Haiti. At
the time he attended weekly interpretation sessions with the researcher,
he was in his forties and owned an altar in a suburban shantytown, where
devotees to Vodou consulted him whi le he manifested the spirits . To supplement his income, he also informally worked as a gardener.
Drawing on his rich emic commentary, much could be wr itten about
the meaning of ritual objects and actions, or about the characteristics and
nature of the spirits during possession. We decided, however, to focus on
his comments relating possession behaviour to parameters such as spiritual
force, level of knowledge and experience, and personal traits. It should be
added that Jose personally knew many of the filmed protagonists and their
backgrounds, which influenced his analysis of their possession behaviour.
Spirit ual force
To Jose, "skilfulness" in possession primarily depends on the amount of
spiritual force pervading an individual's body while being possessed. Jose
described the visible aspect of spiritual force as "firmness" (firmeza); a tensile and dynamic strength characterising posture, gesture and movement. If,
on the contrary, a mounted Horse's movements were weak, perhaps even
to a degree that she could not be prevented from falling down and rolling
on the floor, Jose assumed that she did not dispose of the right amount
of spiritual force to animate her body. Only individuals who were "sweet"
to the spirits would dispose of the right amount of spiritual force. This
Mu lti-perspective analysis / Yvonne Schaffler & Bernd Brabec de Mori
111
predisposition would be partly inherited and partly enhanced by cult induction (bautismo}, aswell as by regularly attending celebrations or pilgrimages
where the spirits bestowed their force upon their devotees.
In particular, Jose picked one recorded event of possession as "very pronounced and beautiful". It showed a woman in her thirties manifesting a
female spirit called Santa Marta la Dominadora or Lubana, representing a
strong and determined woman with dark skin, long hair, and a snake draped
over her neck. Jose referred to the manifesting spirit as a "wild and unruly
version" of "100% African origin" (in Vodou, some spirits appear in different
manifestations, which are locally referred to as siete vueltos), thus drawing
a connection between "Africanness", "wildness", and a high amount of spiritual force. The possessed woman's movements were vigorous , and her firm
gaze was directed to a distant point as she interacted with the ritual assistant, performing ritual salutations (fig. 1). She sharply slapped three times
on the floor to give reference to the place where the spirits of her kind dwell,
then swiftly rotated three times in response to the ritual assistant's parallel
movements. The possessed woman's lips vibrated asshe rolled her eyes and
stuck out her tongue moving it back and forth while uttering hissing noises
in reference to the snake that accompanies the spirit. After putting on her
purple robe and skilfully tying her turban, her gaze signalled the projection of spiritual force onto the ritual assistant whose upper body started to
shake as if subjected to electrical impulse induction. Jose considered these
movements as visible evidence of a force that was contagious and so strong
that, he suggested, even the researcher must have felt it when she was filming the scene.
Knowled ge and experience
It appears that the possibility of repeatedly observing possession from a
distance changed Jose's view in the sense that he became fairly critical over
time. The more often he saw his colleagues on a screen, that is, without
himself being involved in the ritual and feeling its atmosphere, the more
he began to recognise flaws in his peer's possession bearings. After watching recordings of several possession events by the same type of spirit but
"in the heads" of different individuals, Jose noted that they performed neither the ritual salutations nor other actions in a consistent way. He claimed
that this inconsistency occurred due to a lack of knowledge and training."
Since a spirit could easily damage an inexperienced human's body when
11 In one such inst ance he suggested th at many Dominican Horses would profit significantly from visiting Haiti-like he did when he underwent ritual initiation-because he considered the neighbouring
country a major locus of spiritual force and knowledge.
112
2015 International Forum on Audio-Visual Resea rch - Jahrbuch 6
entering with much force, a Horse must be well acquainted (preparado)
to carrying spirits. Therefore, a cult secrecy (conocimiento) was required,
which would be transmitted during the process of initiation. Initiation rituals called "refreshments of the head" (refrescamientos de cabeza) would
consist of pouring liquid offerings over a novice's head so that this area
of the body became inviting to the spirits. While a novice would regularly
attend vodouist celebrations, the spirits themselves would supervise her,
as they dance with her and offer her their gestures (e.g. the ritual salutations) to evoke imitation." Novices would furthermore gain knowledge by
observing their more experienced peers as they handle the spirits . Without going into detail, the following examples shall give an impression of the
techniques available to manipulate the quality and timing of possession:"
during ritual activities, the human body and certain body parts (forehead,
stomach, neck, eyes) are given particular importance. Jose explained that
the feet are the place where spirits associated with death enter the body.
The stomach is the area these spirits pass through . Other spirits, who are
seen as Angels and Saints, are assumed to come down from above, and
to raise one hand serves to channel this kind of spiritual force . The back
of the neck, together with the head, is the area where all kinds of spirits
eventually take their seat as they fully overtake the possessed. The eyes of
a possessed individual can transmit her spiritual force, as does her touch. "
Vice versa, pushing the solar plexus helps to extrude a stranded spirit from
below that has not been able to occupy its rightful position in the back of
the Horse's neck. The techniques used by vodouists for programming not
only the moment but also the quality of spirit possession include acoustic and olfactory means, like the ringing of a small bell and drum rhythms,
as well as the application of perfumes on sensible areas such as the back
of the neck and the forehead. Furthermore, offerings of food and liquor
(referred to as levantamiento) serve to attract spirits. Such actions result
in increased spiritual force animating a possessed person's body. Moreover, whether the spirits manifest inoffensively (manso) or ardently
12 From a cognitive perspective, this type of learn ing may be defined as what Mauss (2006: 81) called
a "prestigious imitation", also mentioned in Bandura's "observational learning" (Bandura 1979). For
an analysis of cognitive processes during rit uals of possession, see Halloy (2012a).
13 It should be added that Jose was not the only person on w hose informati on the autho rs relied , and
that other Horses and also (video) observ ation itself confirmed what Jose told us about know ledge
and tra ining.
14 Since t he forehea d and the hands are seen as inputs and outp uts of spiritual force , tra nce is ofte n
induced by tacti le sensations on the fo rehead. From a psychological perspective, t his compa res to
the techn ique of inducing hypnosis through touch .
Multi-perspective analysis / Yvonne Schaffler & Bernd Brabec de Mori
113
(caliente) may be manipulated by the kind of libations offered at the beginning of a ceremony."
Authenticity
Many of Jose's censures had moral implications, and some of them went
as far as to question the authenticity of possession. Since, according to his
moral and cosmological understanding, the spirits would not engage in
morally inadequate behaviour such as "dancing too close with devotees",
"having a sexualised appearance", "executing gay movements", or a "vulgar
language", he concluded that such occurrences must result from the filmed
individuals' personality which "filtered through" their possession. He noted
that apparently, during what above has been described as centrepiece possession, the possessing spirits would repeatedly leave the human body. In
such cases, performers would fill these temporal gaps in possession by imitating the spirits' habitus, however with "voice tone and prosody purely
resembling that of the caballo instead of the spirit". He called this mfmica
("mimic").
A pronounced example of what Jose identified as incomplete possession
showed a wealthy woman from the capital city that came to visit a public
celebration organised by a well-known spiritual leader. She arrived in the
early afternoon, carefully styled. The moment she took the bell from the
altar and rang it to greet the spirits, her posture started to signal possession.
However, her performance appeared stilted and powerless, and not too rich
in symbolism. Although she embodied a male spirit, her limbs hung loosely.
As the ritual assistant took off her shoes to enable the spirit to enter her
body with force, she stretched her feet towards him. Since in an initial state
of possession, the spirits do not care about their surroundings, Jose identified this as very untypical gesture. He moreover found that the woman did
not appear mentally absent at any time, which he took for further evidence
of her incomplete possession (since "human consciousness" would not stay
in the body during possession). Jose did not necessarily consider incomplete possession a means of deception, despite the fact that some individuals would certainly feign possession in order make themselves appear in
a better light. Most of the time, incomplete possession would occur due
to taking a state of "being touched by the spirits" for a successful possession. In the particular case, ritual participants actively contributed to the
15 To translate this kind of interaction into psychological terms, we may also speak of suggestion (in
cases where one person applies the ritual means to guide the thoughts, feelings, or behaviour of
another) or auto-suggestion (in cases where the ritual means are applied by the invoking person
herself).
114
201S International Forum on Audio-Visual Research - Jahrbuch 6
woman's delusion because nobody gave her proper feedback on the (lacking) quality of her performance. Jose added that in general, little would be
said about the issue of incomplete possession. Instead, servidores would
help their inexperienced peers with their spiritual development until they
could manifest the spirits successfully.
What the archivist sees
At the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, archivists are assigned to certain
projects, if possible, in a way that their respective language proficiencies,
areas of research and interests overlap with the material and objectives of
the material's collector. In the case of the material presented in this paper,
the musicologist is not only proficient in Spanish (albeit experiencing some
passing difficulties with Dominican particularities of pronunciation and
expression) and disposes of some basic knowledge about ritual affairs, but
his fairly close acquaintance with the researcher goes beyond the usual
modalities of communication during archival work.
That said, when first confronted with the video recordings treated here,
the archivist had already been familiar with the social and cultural context
and some of the researcher's ideas about possession and performance;
however, I had never seen the processes of possession as outlined above.
This first visual contact turned out to be a staggering experience indeed: I
was instantly mesmerised by the depth of the researcher's camera position with respect to the filmed characters. Her long-time familiarity with her
local research associates, including many ritual and possession specialists,
allowed her almost intimate shots at the protagonists' actions and expressions. The frequent close-up recordings of ritualists-either entering, experiencing, or exiting states of possession-resulted from both the researcher's interest in an interactional analysis and the situation of the event as
well: in a small, crowded place hosting such ritual action, it would either be
possible to film "from the outside", providing a totalised view of what was
happening in the whole place but thereby losing most of the interactional
facets only available from up close; or, as the researcher preferred, filming
the latter while losing most of the first.
The fascination emanating from these particularly intimate pictures
of shifting personalities was complemented with my conscience of being
an archivist: working on indexing recordings, producing content logs and
contextualising these with metadata included the imagination of other
researchers' possible perspectives, persons who may access the archived
material in the future. For logs and metadata, I tried to find out not only
names and short bios ofthe filmed ritual specialists (aswell as initiates, and
other participants) but likewise those of the summoned spirits (misterios).
Multi-perspect ive analysis / Yvonne Schaffler & Bernd Brabec de Mo ri
115
This was due to personal interest" as the point of initiative, but similarly
taken up in order to provide a comparative seeing of the material when
offered, for example, to browse all recordings showing possession by San
Miguel (the spirit as Catholic Saint and Archangel), or Belie Belcan (Saint
Michael's African-rooted equivalent) when searching for the corresponding
terms, bearing also in mind to help the researcher with this kind of index.
The naming and registering of non-human protagonists in recordings
also caused some confusion among fellow archivists: is it legitimate to
include Saints and spirits in the list of recorded persons? Is it too much to fill
in "misterio" in the database's entry for "profession", or requesting "St." to
be included in the list of titles and grades? Alongside with such administrative uncertainties, further challenges emerged when transcribing the logfiles and registering the protagonists: in some cases, San Miguel came forth
clearly and explicitly, being greeted with his name and worshipped with
a "San Miguel-song" performed by the polo ensemble. However, in many
instances it remained totally shrouded for the uninitiated if there was actual
possession taking place or only rather uncontrolled trancing. In any case, my
identification or guess had to be cross-checked with the researcher, including herself consulting her notes from interpretation sessions with Jose. At
any rate, from my prior and present theoretical work (Brabec de Mori 2013
and 2015), I considered the manifesting misterios a concrete occurrence,
an empirically observable motif for action and interaction, and therefore
I ascribed agency to them. The quality of agency and the competence of
action they embodied seemed to depend on the coherence of the misterio
and the Horse's disposition at the moment of possession; what Jose called
"force" (fuerza espiritual).
Choreographies
One point I want to make is about the choreography of the celebrations
in question. As a musicologist, I int uiti vely paid much attention to these
aspects. Although apparently any participant may wander freely anywhere
during such a party setting, I witnessed that in a spatial sense, an implicit
choreography guided these ways in a rather strictly defined dedication of
place: around the main altar, the "owner" of the celebration was most often
present along with her or his assistants (the plazas), interacting with the
Saints on the altar and with the invited guest specialists. Around these, their
16 Motivated by my own engagement with agency, ontologies and an anthropology beyond the human
(Latour 2013, Descola 2005, Kohn 2013); in July 2015, I organised a round table discussion at the
43rd World Conference of the Int ern ati onal Council ofTraditional Music entit led " The performance
of spirits: an auditory anthropology of creating movement and sound".
116
2015 International Forum on Audio-Visual Research - Jahrbuch 6
pupils and kin people circled the scene, while not-50-involved devotees and
finally bypassers and onlookers built the perimeter of ritual action. The
musicians (usually four of them, playing three differently sized cylindrical
drums called potos, a metallic scraper called gOfra, and singing in a lead
singer/response style) were placed at the perimeter, too, maybe for reasons
of space: they needed some free square metres to set up their battery.
In a temporal sense, the music played was not arbitrary either. The devotional polo songs were performed most of the time, but breaks were frequent and sometimes rather long, allowing for breaks in the whole scene of
action. At the beginning of a celebration, breaks tended to be longer, musicians appearing to "test" the social environment, how people responded
and which tunes received most attention (participants were allowed and
often encouraged to sing along). In some of the recordings, I witnessed
phases in the middle of the festiVity, after the first possessions had already
taken place, that the ensemble played dance music (merengue in one case),
and people seemed to switch from a sacred dancing ritual to a common
dancing party and back again after maybe half an hour, as the music style
changed again.
On a more micro-musicological level, it caught my attention how much
interaction was involved between the musicians and the ritual specialist while performing the ritual action. Although never obviously so (note
that often no free line of sight was available between ensemble and protagonists), the synchronisation of musical actions like changes in the sung
lyrics, rhythmic patterns, or short interludes coinciding with the choreography of entering possession states was intriguing. " During well-working
performances, the music suddenly stopped the moment the possession
was completely manifest, when the misterio started to speak. The phases
in which the manifest misterio interacted with the altar and the devotees
were musically silent, but when the music started again (with songs specific
to the manifest misterio or related in content) the misterio turned to more
" mundane" actions like smoking a cigar, walking around blessing the room
or interacting with people in a more informal way. The synchronisation of
the musical performance with the state of possession opens up a new field
of inquiry, which however is beyond the scope of the present paper.
17 In Dominican Vodou, however, rhythms are rather constant and probably unrelated to the entities
addressed in the lyrics. Unlike in Brazilian Candomble, in Vodou there are no specific rhythms dedicated to specific entities (Daniel 2005: 13; LUhning 1990).
Multi-perspective analysis / Yvo nne Schaffler & Bernd Brabec de Mori
117
The celebrati on setti ng
The manifestation of the misterios was treated in a rather unique manner by participants at the festivities and fellow specialists present : total normalcy. It was surprising to see an event occurring that resembled a fairly
usual dancing and having-fun party, where people brought along their children and babies, a feast including eating and drinking, socialising and flirting; and at some moment a person was thrust to the ground by a sheer
convulsive force, shivering and shaking, and-although people did take
notice-they carried on with their current activities, laughed, and lightly
commented on the event in a mostly quite good-humoured mood. The
direct implication of practised religion within a party setting where people behaved in a way usually not associated with ritual life is specific to
Dominican Vodou. Likewise, a high degree of sexual symbolism meets the
eye of the observer: both among people flirting and dancing, from young
boys making fun of the wobbling breasts of a woman falling into trance, to
the very behaviour of certain misterios; for example when a young woman
was possessed by Indio Bravo, the "savage Indian", exerting the stereotype
of a primitive, sexualised Indianness, or in cases male Horses were being
"mounted" by a female misterio, for example by Santa Marta La Dominadora, who, as hinted at above by Jose, can be associated with a likewise
stereotyped imagination of "wild" Africanness. This interconnected performance of the sacred, the (trans)sexual, and entertainment, possibly including excess in some later phases of the celebrations, within a framework
considered totally "normal" by local participants, caused a largely surprising
experience when watching the recordings from an external point of view.
Note that both the researcher as well as the local expert did not comment
on these points, because they seemed to be caught within the mentioned
aura of "normalcy" of these ceremonial settings.
In such a setting, the effect of the misterios' agency among the participants becomes more tangible: the spirits are involved in " real life", they
manifest in the same place and at the same time as such essential processes
of life like socialising, eating, drinking, having fun, flirting, musicking, and
praying and singing take place. The misterios are never detached from the
believers, in the way Saints are from a European Catholic: one of the latter's main task of being a "good" Catholic is to faithfully deal with her or
his own uncertainty about God's and the Saints' existence and actions. The
participants in Dominican Vodou, on the other hand, are always beyond
doubt: they feel, see, touch, and are touched (physically and emotionally)
by the manifest Saints and other spirits (see fig. 2). Therefore, the system
in which these celebrations take place should not be understood as a social
field including some detached " belief "; the devotees' belief approaches
118
2015 International Forum on Audio-Visual Research- Jahrbuch 6
certainty. This certainty constitutes a basis for the life conduct of devotees,
they orient their practical actions outside ritual based on their experiences
of the spirits' agency during celebrations. Therefore, what the spirits do
and say in ritual becomes relevant far beyond the celebration's framework
and shapes a system of orientation for devotees. As William Sax suggested
for Indian curing rituals, "In any case, nonhuman agents are crucial for the
functioning of the system, which would lose its coherence without them"
(Sax 2009: 134; see also Blanes & Espfrito Santo 2013). It becomes a crucial task, under these circumstances, to understand the gradual differences
between performances where a practitioner or an inexperienced trancer
intends to impress those present or to fulfil some role expected by the local
collective," and these performances-at some point crossing a threshold
of meaningfulness-where the performance becomes so convincing that
devotees perceive the Horse as being actually mounted by a spirit.
Human and non-human protagonists
By registering the possessing entities as recorded characters, I became
aware of certain preferences: it seemed that experienced priests had
"favourite" misterios. These were also visually prominent because of the
central placement of corresponding statues or icons on the main altar displayed at the ceremony. San Miguel, for example, seemed to be the central
misterio for a female specialist who tended to embody him with considerable vigour, while one male caballo who often appeared in the recordings
seemed to be especially fond of Guede Limbo (San Expedito), a misterio
characterised by "incorrect" moral behaviour (see fig. 4). This one was likewise embodied with much dedication and attention, and in both cases, an
observer may have the impression that the person (as both caballo and misterio) very much enjoyed the whole situation. Especially such impressive
performances lead me to intuitively judge the quality of possession: I found,
based on my own intuition, that there were "good" (in an artistic rather than
a moral sense) possessions that caught the eye and breath of the observer,
in contrast to lessspectacular or even failing possessions. These "good" performances, when cross-checking, tended to be exactly those regarded as
skilful by the researcher and as charged with much "spiritual force" by the
practitioner Jose. In this context, the researcher told me that initiates are
being "baptised" for one central spirit who will then be, as I would call it,
the practitioner's "favourite" (misterio de cabeza or "Spirit of the Head"),
18 Note here that also locals, as can be seen in Jose's commentary, do perceive and discuss this gradual distinction between "being touched by a spirit", mimicking possession, and actual "authentic"
possession.
Multi-perspective analysis / Yvonne Schaffler & Bernd Brabec de Mori
119
although later in her or his life, more misterios may be added to this category. Which misterio is chosen to be a novice's "Spirit of the Head" primarily
depends on the mentoring peers, who seek to read their protege's personality, and thereby recognise his or her true identity based on a deep connection with that spirit, which is usually also the first entity that takes possession." When watching and pondering this, I also wondered about gender
roles. The dense sexuality and transgender aspects mentioned above were
a foregrounding feature and led me to observe who embodied whom at
such celebrations. What caught my attention were the many young females
falling into inexperienced (or "wild") trances during the earlier stages of the
festivity as compared to males." Such uncontrolled trancing seemed to be
almost their very own domain. This leads to a few of them being initiated,
and some of them are then bound to an Indio as their "favourite" spirit. This
suggests that rituals can provide an extensive room for experience to young
females who may be otherwise restricted in their freedom of action within a
society with pronounced machismo as is the Dominican mainstream ."
Among the initiated and experienced practitioners, I had the impression that the "favourite" misterios were not arbitrarily chosen either. Jose
indicated that the personality of the practitioner and the misterio have
to be "in tune" in a certain way. I think that this is due to the mentioned
"favourite" or main misterio(s) a practitioner is "baptised" with. If this central spirit is wisely chosen during the initi ati on process, this correspondence will be "automatically" available, and the coballo-misterio person can
enjoy her or his possession performance . Here it caught my attention that
despite a probably equal distribution of gender among the misterios available in total, a cross-gender preference seemed prominent. Very often (in
"good" performances), female protagonists embodied male spirits , while
19 See also Schaffler (2009: 48f.).
20 These predominantly female young tra ncers we re accompanied by likewise fema le devotees (who
did not fall into tr ance, most oft en being client s of t he main characters of the celebratio n). There
were male devotees, too, but I had th e impression of a female majo rity again. The researcher, however, explained t hat th is seemed to be an artefa ct created by the specific groups of people she
mainly worked with during her recording sessions. Among other groups, males were mo re predominant, wh ich in a quantitative survey resulted in an equal gender ratio among 47 participants
(Schaffler et al. 2015, in print). Note that Piper (2012: 513) recognised an increase in the number of
male spir it mediums. It may be not eworthy here th at t here are urban middle-class gay communiti es
attend ing specific altars (which are male dom inated th en), a notion t hat can also be connected to
t he follo wing (see especially next footno te).
21 This goes well wit h Kubik's (2003) ethno-psychoanalytic approach to what he calls conversion ph enomeno (" Konversionsphanomene")-implying a connecti on betwee n suppressed female sexualit y
and predom inance of " possession" episodes.
120
201S Internat ional Forum on Audio-Visual Research - Jahrbuch 6
male practitioners enjoyed "being" a female spirit. Inquiring about this, it
appeared that a significant percentage of male practitioners are "known" to
be homosexual," though none of the females are considered lesbian.
Other hints at the coincidence of personality traits and the known qualities of spirits could be found in the emic categorisation. On an altar, one
can see the morally "good" Saints placed on top (la division blanca}, while
there are also statues or icons placed below the table, often covered with
a blanket; these are the dark ones (la division negra). There are also some
in-betweens, like the Indios (the Indians, who are associated with water and
are most often placed in a basin besides the main altar). It was again surprising how indiscriminately ceremony participants reacted on who is embodied by the protagonists. Saints were well received, but likewise invocations
of dark ones, or "Indians". Here, especially the sub-section of the quedes,
a section of "dark" (but not necessarily "evil") spirits, is of interest. There
were practitioners who showed funny, often ironic attitudes in everyday life,
who seemed to prefer Guede Limbo as their "favourite" misterio. Guede
Limbo excels in tricksterish behaviour, in sexual promiscuity, gluttony and
a general tendency to ridicule session participants. These especially contributed to the aforementioned atmosphere of "having fun" at the sacred
opportunities of ritual celebrations, and they have a big advantage for
gaining much attention ." Some specialists excelled in entertaining people,
not only via embodying trickster spirits, but also by making fun in general,
mocking other protagonists, obviously mimicking failed possessions, and
applying any other devices of entertainment. You can be fairly sure that
their "favourite" misterio was not one of the noblest Saints."
22 Their homosexuality may be hint ed at, they most often do not out t hemselves, w hich, in Dominican
mainstrea m society, is still considered someth ing highly prob lematic and comes accompanied wit h
social stigma.
23 It deem s rewarding to more profoundly investigate on fun perfo rmed in the given context (see
also Piper 2012, who noted an accentuated dance and party or ientation in the contemporary ritual
music) and in ritua l in general. I proposed an "ant hropology of t he fun factor" in my recent book
about Western Amazonian indigenous music (Brabec de Mori 2015a: 206ff.). The Dominican Vodou
setting seems to be particularly suitable for such an endeavour since interest in drink and festivity
increased dur ing the last decades. This went as far as spiritual leaders starting to complain that
fiestas had been corrupted by alcohol and were losing the ir religious focus (Piper 2012: 517f.).
24 Also M ischel & Mischel (1947) have noted with regard to the Shango cult in Trinidad that possession
behaviour cannot be rigidly separated fro m t he person's secular roles as it sometimes involves an
extension or distortion of everyday behaviour. A person's identi ty, his/ her self-concept and social
roles are influenced by the kind of Horse he/she is, and by t he spirits who most habitua lly possess
him/h er.
Mu lti-p e rspe ct ive ana lysis / Yvon n e Schaffle r & Bernd Brabec de Mori
121
Fig. 4: Manifestation of the burlesque divinity Guede Limb6 (left). Photograph by
Yvonne Schaffler.
Conclusion
The present article considered the ritual setting, performance modalities, and interaction during events of spirit possession in Dominican Vodou
from three different perspectives.
Nowadays public celebrations are characterised through a party-like
atmosphere, including drinking, fun , and fl irting, allowing people to switch
from a sacred dancing ritual to a common dancing party and back again,
particularly as in the afternoon the music style sometimes changes between
salve and merengue. Cross-gender possession frequently happens and contributes to varied images of sexualised habitus during the celebration . The
later the point in time, the higher the number of guests, w ith the frequency
of events of possession also increasing. While at the beginning of a fiesta,
the stage rather belongs to inexperienced trancers, more experienced
Horses tend to time their performances when the fiesta is already crowded
to stir a maximum of attention from those around . At the heart of a fiesta,
the organiser masters the difficult task to embody the spirit(s) that are celebrated on the very occasion under the critical eyes of peers and bystanders.
To analyse the varying quality of possession behaviour, the researcher
engaged in a psychological paradigm, using the concept of trance or dissociation, which can have different degrees of depth; she also stated that the
effect of training would make a significant qualitative difference. Successful
possession would not only require the skills to perform cultural codes in a
way aesthetically satisfy ing and intelligible to others, but also circumstances
122
2015 International Forum on Audio-Visual Research - Jahrbuch 6
(including positive feedback from the surrounding group and a good balance between perceived challenges and own perceived skills) suitable for
lending oneself to an uninterrupted state of trance or in case of an optimal
experience: flow. By contrast, ritual failure would be characterised by a lack
of focus on the spirit role as a result of excessive demand and a lack of group
support.
Parting from an emic perspective, the local expert Jose ascribed the
major cause for successful possession to the right amount of "spiritual
force" animating the body of the possessed subject. On the one hand, the
intensity of that force would depend on factors such as virility or "wildness"
of the possessing entity, while on the other hand, some humans would be
more attractive to spirits than others, their "sweetness" fostering intense
spiritual contact. To master the danger of being overwhelmed by a force too
strong to manage, certain techniques for controlling the moment and the
intensity of possession would be acquired during the process of ritual initiation. Like the researcher, also Jose recognised that successfully possessed
individuals would experience an altered state of consciousness. However,
he saw it as a mere symptom that human consciousness had left the body
to give way to a possessing spirit.
When the ethnomusicologist archived and watched the material, he
felt, like Jose, a desire to judge possession for its quality. He found that the
most prominent "good" possession performances, specifically what the
researcher called "centrepiece possessions", seemed to be those where a
practitioner manifested her or his "favourite" spirit. To him, Jose's observation that the invoking human's personality would influence the performance of possession was a logical consequence of the installation of one
particular spirit into the central position of the initiate's future possession
behaviour during the initiation process (or later, as other spirits make deep
connections, too).
The interpretation of the archivist follows an actor-network-based
approach that treats the spirits as social agents who actively contribute to
keep alive the system of references that devotees use for orienting their
decisions during practical life outside ritual. This third view attempts a
position in between the rather personalised and psychologically grounded
approach of the researcher and the spiritual, belief-centred view of Jose: by
parting from the notion of symbolic action and instead attributing agency to
the embodied entities (cf. Blanes & Espfrito Santo 2013), the personality of
these entities can interact with the Horses' personalities and thus eo-create
the atmosphere typical for convincing religious experiences.
All three interpretations circle around the question whether a specific
trance, a situation of possession, can be considered a skilful (researcher),
Multi-perspective analysis / Yvonne Schaffler & Bernd Brabec de Mori
123
forceful (Jose), or good (archivist) possession performance. What can certainly be deduced from the three approaches to the material in question is
that for such a convincing possession to happen it is not sufficient that the
acting practitioner does well. The whole of the ceremonial setting interacts,
starting with the spirits who may do well-or not-, too, to the musicians,
the ceremonial assistants, the invited specialists, the devotees present, to
even the "correct" decoration of the ritual space, specifically of the altar
where the placement and iconic representation of the Saints has to be in
order. Maybe most promising for future research, this indicates not to interpret trance as an internal state of the specific practitioner but as a social
phenomenon: for a successful trance to happen, the aptness of the trancer
is but a prerequisite which would be insufficient on its own; the trancer has
to be in good standing not only with the spirits (and here it is not important
if these are understood as literal Saints, as social agents, or as representations of inner states}, but likewise with the whole of the social and collective
agencies that constitute the ritual celebration.
References
Bandura, Albert. 1979. Sozial-kognitive Lerntheorie. Stuttgart: Klett.
Blanes, Ruy & Diana Espfrito Santo. 2013. The Social Life of Spirits. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Boddy, Janice. 1994. "Spirit Possession Revisited: Beyond Instrumentality". Annual Review of Anthropology 23: 407-434.
Bourguignon, Erika (ed.). 1973. Religion, Altered States of Consciousness and Social Change. Columbus:
Ohio State University Press.
Bourguignon, Erika. 1976. Possession. San Francisco: Chandler and Sharp.
Brabec de Mori, Bernd (ed.). 2013. The Human and Non-human in Lowland South American Indigenous
Music. (Special Issue of Ethnomusicology Forum, 22/3). London: Routledge.
Brabec de Mori, Bernd. 201Sa. Die Lieder der Richtigen Menschen. Musikalische Kulturanthropologie der
indigenen Bevolkeruru; im Ucayali- Tal (Westamazonien). Innsbruck: Helbling.
Brabec de Mori, Bernd. 201Sb. "Sonic Substances and Silent Sounds: an Auditory Anthropology of Ritual
Songs". Tipiri. Journal of the Society of the Anthropology of Lowland South America (Special Issue: The
Alchemical Person) 13(2): 25-43.
Cardefia, Etzel, Marjolein Van Duijl, Lupita Weiner & Devin Terhune. 2009. "Possession/Trance Phenomena". In: Dell, Paul & John O'Neil (eds.). Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and Beyond.
New York: Routledge, 171-181.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. 1990. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row.
Daniel, Yvonne. 2005. Dancing Wisdom. Embodied Knowledge in Haitian Vodou, Cuban Yoruba, and
Bahian Candomble. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Davis, Martha Ellen. 1987. La otra ciencia: El vodu dominicano como religion y medicina populares. Santa
Domingo: UASD.
124
2015 Internationa l Forum on Aud io-V isual Research - Jahrbuc h 6
Deive, Carlos Esteban. 1996 (1975). Vodu y magia en Santa Damingo. 4th ed. Santa Domingo: Taller.
Descola, Philippe. 2005. Par-dele nature et culture. Paris: Editions Gallimard .
Frigerio, Alejandro . 1989. "Levels of Possession Awareness in Afro-Brazilian Religions". AASCQuarterly
5 (2-3): 5-11.
Halloy, Arnaud. 2012a. " Gods in the Flesh: Learning Emotions in the Xango Possession Cult (Brazil) ".
Journal of Anthropology 77 (2) : 177-202.
Halloy, Arnaud . 2012b . " Percibir la presen cia de los dioses. La danza de poseslon en un culto afro-brasilefio", Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios sobre Cuerpos, Emociones y Sociedad 10: 30-47.
Jordan, Brigitte & Austin Henderson. 1995 . "Interaction Analysis: Foundations and Practice". The Journal
of the Learning Sciences 4 (1) : 39-103.
Klass, Morton. 2003 . Mind Over M ind: The Anthropology and Psychology of Spirit Possession. Oxford:
Rowman and Littlefeld.
Knoblauch, Hubert. 2000 . " Workplace Studies und Video. Zur Entw icklung der visuellen Ethnographie
von Technologie und Arbeit". In: Giitz , Irene & Andreas Wittel (eds.) . Arbeitskulturen im Umbruch. Zur
Ethnographie von Arbe it und Organisotion . Munster etc.: Waxmann, 159-173.
Kohn, Eduardo . 2013. How Forests think. Toward an Anthropology beyond the Human. Berkeley, Los
Angeles, London : University of California Press.
Kubik, Gerhard. 2003 . " Ko nversionsphanom ene. Theorie und Material ien im Kult urvergleich". In: Wiener
psychoanalytische Vereinigung (ed.). Hysterie. W ien : Picus Verlag, 77-159.
Lat our, Bruno. 2013. An Inquiry into Modes of Existence. An Anthropology of the Modems. Cambridge/
MA : Harvard University Press. [French vers ion 2012)
Luhn ing, Angela . 1990. Die Musik im condomble nag6-ketu. Studien zur afrobrasilianischen Musik in
Salvador, Bahfa. Hamburg: Wagner.
Mauss, Marcel. 2006 [1935], Techniques, Technology and Civilisation. New York & Oxford : Durkheim
Press / Berghahn Books.
Mischel, Waiter & Frances M ischel.1947. "Psycho logical Aspects of Spirit Possession". American Anthropologist 60 (2) : 249-259.
Piper, Daniel Clifford. 2012 . Urbanization, Gender, and Cultural Emergence in the Mus ic of Dominican
Popular Religion : Palos and Salvesin San Crist6bal. Dissertation, Department of Music, Brown University.
Rouget, Gilbert. 1985. Mus ic and Trance: A Theory of the Relations Between Music and Possession.
Chicago & London : Chicago University Press.
Sax, W illiam. 2009. God of Justice: Ritual Healing and Social Justice in the Central Himalayas . Oxford &
New York: Oxford University Press.
Schaffier, Yvonne . 2009. Vodu? Das ist Sache der anderen! Kreolische Med izin, Spiritualitiit und Iden titiit im Siidwesten der Domin ikanischen Republik. (W iener Ethnomedizinische Reihe , 7) . Wien & Zur ich :
L1T-Verlag.
Schaffier, Yvonne . 2012. "Besessenheit in der Domin ikanischen Republik im Fruhstadium: 'Wilde' Besessenhe it (caballo lobe) aus psychodynam ischer und p raxistheoretischer Perspektive ". Curare 35 (1+2) :
72-84.
Schaffier, Yvonne . 2013 . "El caballo que se volvlo lobo. Ana llsls de l fen6meno de ' posesi6 n espontanea' ".
In: Sigl, Eveline, Yvonne Schaffier & Ricardo Avila (eds.). Etnograpas de America Latina . Ocho Ensayos.
(Colecci6n Estudios del Hombre, 30). Guadalajara: Universidad de Guadalajara, 133-164.
Multi-pe rspective analysis 1 Yvonne Schaffler & Bernd Brabec de M ori
125
Schaffler, Yvonne (w it h EtzelCardefia, Sophie Reij man. and Daniela Haluza). 2015. "Traumati c Experience
and Somatoform Dissociation amo ng Spirit Possession Practitioners in the Domin ican Republic". Cultur e,
Medicine and Psychiatry. Online : <http ://link.springer.com/article/10.10071511013-015-9472-5> .
Schaffler, Yvonne (in pr int). '''Wild' Spirit Possession in t he Dominican Republ ic: From Expression of Distress to Cult ural Expertise ". In: Felbeck, Christine & Andre Klump (eds.). Dominicanidad . (Schri ft enrei he
Amer ica Romana). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
YvonneSCHAFFLER:
Department for General Practice and Family Medicine, Centerfor Public
Health, Medical University of Vienna
http://allgmed.meduniwien.ac.at/
http://yvonne-schaffler.eu/
yvonne.schaffler@meduniwien.ac.at
Bernd BRABEC DE MORI:
Institute of Ethnomusicology, University of Music and Performing Arts
http://ethnomusikologie.kug.ac.at/en/institute-13-ethnomusicology.html
http://wiki.cibera.de/index.php/Brabec_de_MorLMag._Dr._phil._Bernd
bernd. brabec@kug.ac.at
doi : lO.1553/jpa6s100-125